Pennsylvania Senate Bill SB359

Pennsylvania 2025-2026 Regular Session

• Introduced: 2/28/25
• Refer: 2/28/25

Caption

In rural State highway system and State highways in cities, boroughs and towns, further providing for improvement, reconstruction and maintenance.

Summary

SB 359 amends Pennsylvania’s State Highway Law to change how the Department of Transportation handles improvement, reconstruction, and maintenance of State highways in boroughs and incorporated towns. Under current law, the department is responsible for improving, reconstructing, and maintaining all State highways within boroughs and incorporated towns at Commonwealth expense. The bill keeps that general rule but adds a specific requirement for drainage facilities. The new language would require PennDOT, at Commonwealth expense, to construct and maintain all surface and subsurface drainage facilities connected with State highways in boroughs and incorporated towns with populations of 2,500 or less, based on the most recent federal decennial census. The bill would take effect 60 days after enactment. In practical terms, it expands and clarifies state responsibility for highway-related drainage infrastructure in smaller municipalities.

Impact

SB 359 would amend Section 513 of the State Highway Law, narrowing the affected municipal category to boroughs and incorporated towns with populations of 2,500 or less for the drainage-facility provision. It would impose an explicit statutory duty on PennDOT to fund, construct, and maintain both surface and subsurface drainage facilities tied to State highways in those small municipalities, while leaving the broader maintenance obligation for State highways in boroughs and incorporated towns in place. The bill would affect PennDOT, small boroughs and incorporated towns, and the allocation of Commonwealth highway maintenance responsibilities.

Sentiment

No committee transcript or vote record is provided, so there is no documented debate or recorded sentiment to assess from the available materials. Based on the bill text alone, the measure appears administrative and technical rather than controversial, focusing on clarifying maintenance obligations for highway drainage in smaller municipalities.

Contention

There are no recorded points of contention in the provided context. If concerns were to arise, they would likely center on the fiscal impact to the Commonwealth, the scope of PennDOT’s maintenance obligations, and whether the 2,500-population threshold is the appropriate cutoff for state-funded drainage work in boroughs and incorporated towns.